SuperBee364
New member
1.5 to 2 days for a full exterior detail on a car that needs paint correction. I'm in Dave's camp on this one; I just can't imagine doing it any faster.
Detailing Speed?
- Thread starter imported_Dave KG
- Start date
Brian_Brice
New member
David, I agree somewhat, I don't agree you must have volume at average to acceptable quality to make a living.
For this type work I know i had a hard time charging accordingly, I don't anymore, simply charge accordingly and you should be able to make a fine living on one car a day.
For this type work I know i had a hard time charging accordingly, I don't anymore, simply charge accordingly and you should be able to make a fine living on one car a day.
David Fermani
Forza Auto Salon
VaSuperShine said:
No offense intended, but there's tons of people making a "living" doing detailing on their own(in all levels of quality). I don't doubt that one bit. It depends on what's acceptable to one's amount of income they need to achieve and how long your body will keep up. How many people are making $100K-$300K(or more) doing acceptable levels of detailing on their own? For how long? It's a whole lot easier to do it in volume with people doing the work for you and you supervising the quality level than doing it yourself.
It's hard to have high quality + quick speed + lots of money all in one. 1 or more variables will have to be sacrificed on a reqular basis.
Brian_Brice
New member
I'll go with that, the body holding up is the main idea. It's very tedious on your bones that's for sure.
Making 6 figures isnt very likely by a one man operation but making 3-4 hundred dollars a day is good money doing something you love to do. I wouldn't want to run a shop where less than autopian level work was being done, that says money is numero uno in my book and that couldn't be further from the truth. If supplemented income is what a detailer needs then by all means find other avenues if youre not working enough, thousands on non physical side jobs out there.
Making 6 figures isnt very likely by a one man operation but making 3-4 hundred dollars a day is good money doing something you love to do. I wouldn't want to run a shop where less than autopian level work was being done, that says money is numero uno in my book and that couldn't be further from the truth. If supplemented income is what a detailer needs then by all means find other avenues if youre not working enough, thousands on non physical side jobs out there.
danponjican
DetailingGurus.com
I just did an exterior only detail yesterday. It was an E36 M3 and needed two stage polishing. I washed, clayed, OC with wool, SSR1 with white CCS and applied DG #105 sealant in right at 5 hours. I started at 5PM and finished right at 10PM. But I wash pushing myself. I wasn't cutting corners but I the customer was waiting on me so I didn't want to keep him too late. You better believe that I'm feeling it today though! I'm sure most of you know what I mean!
Accumulator
Well-known member
Yeah, especially for an E36!
SVR
Dream Machines
Thanks maestro, this is a good thread
I'm following in your footsteps and like to work the abrasives down so fine that the clarity is as high as possible. My shop will only carry out autopian level work. sure it's not for everyone but very soon, I'll be continuing to suplement the detailing with product sales.
Today I have been working on my fathers race car (MG F with a light changing colour purple and blue paint) and I worked 106FF and ultra gloss superpolish together with an LC black pad and a hint of glycerin for longer working time and less dust for over four minutes and down to 700 rpm at the end.
The reflected images (products on my shelves) looked so life like, you could see the colour of the paint and reflected images but not the paint itself. hard to explain really.
sort of like the paint has become coloured glass
Sure I can do a better than hack shop one to two step buff and have it looking real shiny but not be flawless in about four hours including wheels, tyres, windows but paint correction is anywhere from three to five steps (one or two by hand to add some more colour richness, lustre and fill in some of the orange peel where possible) and a time frame of seven to sixteen hours. A friend who does it part time takes up to 20 on really large cars.
I think the reason for the extra time I take now is because of the 4 inch pads
hardly ever do I use 8 inch pads anymore and have switched to 4 to 6.5 inch
The 4 inch give me the ability to get every damn mark out from nooks and crannys plus front and rear bumpers, tail lights, bottom of doors, side mirrors, funnily angled front guards and cars with spoilers that the owner refuses to remove
They take longer but sure are easy to use and much much harder to burn an edge even with tape on it
I found the 8 inch doesn't always get the same amount of swirls out as a 4 to 6 inch and the overhang of the 8 inch pad when trying to do the bottom of the rear quarter can cause a burn or some damage to the top of the rear bumper.
The one thing to remember is each person is unique and has weaknesses in certain areas
Some can go faster and still get terrific results, I can't
others can use an 8 inch pad where I'd prefer to take it safe and use a 4 inch.
Plus I have never had more than three hours of tuition on machine buffing by a true professional and could improve one of my techniques if I spent some time with one of you guys.
Customers who want full paint correction and enhancement plus wheel, glass, chrome and plastic polishing, tyres cleaned and dressed plus paint sealing and waxing, must be prepare to pay for it. The price I charge is what I believe fair and reasonable
Anywhere from $350 to $550 but the results are the longest lasting in the nation
My machine burnishing and two year sealant protection of exterior trims on most sedans comes in at 60 to 85 dollars and takes one to two hours to do. they will never have to touch them with dressings again and can bring their car back in a year or year and a half and the car will be exactly the same as it was when it left my shop (except for marring)
The shine will be intact unlike other shops where it lasts maybe six weeks.
I'm following in your footsteps and like to work the abrasives down so fine that the clarity is as high as possible. My shop will only carry out autopian level work. sure it's not for everyone but very soon, I'll be continuing to suplement the detailing with product sales.
Today I have been working on my fathers race car (MG F with a light changing colour purple and blue paint) and I worked 106FF and ultra gloss superpolish together with an LC black pad and a hint of glycerin for longer working time and less dust for over four minutes and down to 700 rpm at the end.
The reflected images (products on my shelves) looked so life like, you could see the colour of the paint and reflected images but not the paint itself. hard to explain really.
sort of like the paint has become coloured glass
Sure I can do a better than hack shop one to two step buff and have it looking real shiny but not be flawless in about four hours including wheels, tyres, windows but paint correction is anywhere from three to five steps (one or two by hand to add some more colour richness, lustre and fill in some of the orange peel where possible) and a time frame of seven to sixteen hours. A friend who does it part time takes up to 20 on really large cars.
I think the reason for the extra time I take now is because of the 4 inch pads
hardly ever do I use 8 inch pads anymore and have switched to 4 to 6.5 inch
The 4 inch give me the ability to get every damn mark out from nooks and crannys plus front and rear bumpers, tail lights, bottom of doors, side mirrors, funnily angled front guards and cars with spoilers that the owner refuses to remove
They take longer but sure are easy to use and much much harder to burn an edge even with tape on it
I found the 8 inch doesn't always get the same amount of swirls out as a 4 to 6 inch and the overhang of the 8 inch pad when trying to do the bottom of the rear quarter can cause a burn or some damage to the top of the rear bumper.
The one thing to remember is each person is unique and has weaknesses in certain areas
Some can go faster and still get terrific results, I can't
others can use an 8 inch pad where I'd prefer to take it safe and use a 4 inch.
Plus I have never had more than three hours of tuition on machine buffing by a true professional and could improve one of my techniques if I spent some time with one of you guys.
Customers who want full paint correction and enhancement plus wheel, glass, chrome and plastic polishing, tyres cleaned and dressed plus paint sealing and waxing, must be prepare to pay for it. The price I charge is what I believe fair and reasonable
Anywhere from $350 to $550 but the results are the longest lasting in the nation
My machine burnishing and two year sealant protection of exterior trims on most sedans comes in at 60 to 85 dollars and takes one to two hours to do. they will never have to touch them with dressings again and can bring their car back in a year or year and a half and the car will be exactly the same as it was when it left my shop (except for marring)
The shine will be intact unlike other shops where it lasts maybe six weeks.
salty
Active member
Very good thread and might open some eyes to the time involved to return damaged paint to new or better.
It basically takes me about an hour to do a pass of a vehicle with rotary. I can speed it up but then i can run into personal burnout and sub par work. It also makes it easier to estimate total time for various buffs.
Some do claim to be able to finish 2 or 3 steps in a few hours, but i wonder about their work.
The most time i have ever spent on the exterior was last week to remove overspray. It was some sort of roofing epoxy on a black '06 Ultima and i had to order the heaviest clay i could find. Production heavy duty red. 24 hours start to finish. The clay picked up the epoxy so basically turned into about 2500 grit sandpaper. 1 of 4 cars so i wasn't changing to new clay, very often, would get expensive. 16 hours clay, 8 hour polish and wax to remove the marring from the clay. Insurance work, paid well.
It basically takes me about an hour to do a pass of a vehicle with rotary. I can speed it up but then i can run into personal burnout and sub par work. It also makes it easier to estimate total time for various buffs.
Some do claim to be able to finish 2 or 3 steps in a few hours, but i wonder about their work.
The most time i have ever spent on the exterior was last week to remove overspray. It was some sort of roofing epoxy on a black '06 Ultima and i had to order the heaviest clay i could find. Production heavy duty red. 24 hours start to finish. The clay picked up the epoxy so basically turned into about 2500 grit sandpaper. 1 of 4 cars so i wasn't changing to new clay, very often, would get expensive. 16 hours clay, 8 hour polish and wax to remove the marring from the clay. Insurance work, paid well.
danponjican
DetailingGurus.com
Danny318 said:
I totally agree with the statement made that working at a faster pace will burn you out! after this detail I felt like I didn't want to do ANYTHING! No doubt, taking your time is always the best bet.